Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League
Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League ဖက်ဆစ်ဆန့်ကျင်ရေး ပြည်သူ့လွတ်လပ်ရေး အဖွဲ့ချုပ် | |
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 Myanmar portal |
The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL)
The league evolved out of the anti-Japanese resistance organization
An AFPFL delegation under the leadership of Aung San led the negotiations for independence in London in January 1947. After winning the elections of April 1947 for a Constitutional Assembly, the AFPFL leadership drafted the new constitution for a sovereign Burma. It initially included a Marxist faction led by Thakin Than Tun, but they were purged from the party in October 1948.[1]
The AFPFL determined Burma's post-independence politics and policies until June 1958, when the party split into two factions, the Clean AFPFL and the Stable AFPFL.
History
Fight for independence
The origins of the league go back to the clandestine anti-Japanese resistance organization AFO that was founded by the
The communist leaders Thakin Soe and Thakin Than Tun served as first president respectively general secretary of the league. Personal issues led to Thakin Soe's ouster from the CPB and consequently to his absence at the first post-war conference of the AFPFL held at the Naythurain theater on the Kandawgyi Lake from 16 to 19 August 1945 in Rangoon. Aung San chaired the conference and eventually superseded Thakin Soe as president of the AFPFL.[5]
Dissent and ideological rifts with the communists over leadership and strategy in the independence struggle began soon to emerge within the league. Thakin Soe, after splitting from the CPB and forming the
In January 1947, Aung San and other AFPFL leaders such as
Independence and civil war
Burma declared independence from Britain in January 1948, and the CPB went underground the following March after U Nu ordered the arrest of its leaders for inciting rebellion. Other groups also soon dropped out of the AFPFL to join the rebellion, not only the White-band faction of the People's Volunteer Organisation (PVO) formed by Aung San as a
.The first post-independence
Parliamentary rule and split
Although the AFPFL was returned to office again in the 1956 elections, the results came as a shock as the opposition left-wing coalition, known as the National United Front (NUF) and led by Aung Than, older brother of Aung San, won 37% of the vote and 48 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
By 1958, despite an economic recovery and the unexpected success of U Nu's "Arms for Democracy" offer that saw the surrender of a large number of insurgents, most notably the PVO, the AFPFL had become riven with internal splits, which worsened following the party's congress in January 1958. In July 1958 it formally split, with one group led by Prime Minister U Nu, which he named the "Clean AFPFL"; the other was led by Kyaw Nyein and Ba Swe and was known as the Stable AFPFL.[8]
The majority of AFPFL MPs were supporters of the Stable faction, but U Nu was able to narrowly escape defeat in parliamentary
Following the restoration of multi-party democracy after the 8888 Uprising, two new parties were established using the AFPFL name, the AFPFL (founded 1988)[9] and the AFPFL (Original). Both contested the 1990 elections, but received less than 0.05% of the vote and failed to win a seat.
Policies
The league with its different political parties and mass and class organizations was held together by the common leadership of first Aung San and then
Leadership
President
- President Thakin Soe (1944–1945)
- President U Aung San (1945–1947)
- President U Nu (1947–1958)
General secretary
- General Secretary Thakin Than Tun (1945–1946)
- General Secretary Kyaw Nyein (1946–1956)
- General Secretary Thakin Kyaw Tun (1956–1958)
Election results
| Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Aung San | 1,755,000 | 173 / 210
|
 173
|
1st
|
Supermajority government | |
| 1951–1952 | U Nu | 199 / 250
|
26
|
 1st
|
Supermajority government | ||
| 1956 | 1,844,614 | 47.7% | 148 / 250
|
 51
|
1st
|
Majority government |
Notes
- ^ Burmese: ဖက်ဆစ်ဆန့်ကျင်ရေး ပြည်သူ့လွတ်လပ်ရေး အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, pronounced [pʰɛʔsʰɪʔ sʰa̰ɰ̃tɕɪ̀ɰ̃jé pjìðṵ lʊʔlaʔjé əpʰwɛ̰dʑoʊʔ]; abbreviated ဖဆပလ, hpa hsa pa la
References
- ^ Ba 1968, p. 45.
- ^ U Maung Maung 1990, pp. 120–122.
- ^ Fukui 1985, pp. 108–109.
- ^ Seekins 2006, pp. 75–76.
- ^ Prager-Nyein & Nyein 2016, pp. 85–87.
- ^ Thomson 1960, p. 34.
- ^ Johnstone 1963, p. 27.
- ^ "Tatmadaw's future role history has bequeathed". New Light of Myanmar. 3 April 1995. Retrieved 5 November 2009.[permanent dead link]
- ^ The Far East and Australasia 2003, p.892
- ^ Cavendish 2007, p. 626.
- ^ Fleischmann 1989, p. 244.
Bibliography
- Ba, Maw (1968). Breakthrough in Burma Memoirs of a Revolution, 1939-1946. pp. 434 pp.
- Cavendish, Marshall (2007). World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia. Marshall Cavendish Corporation. ISBN 978-0-7614-7631-3.
- Fleischmann, Klaus (1989). Documents on communism in Burma, 1945-1977. Institut für Asienkunde. ISBN 978-3-88910-057-3.
- Fukui, Haruhiro (1985). Political parties of Asia and the Pacific. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press.
- Johnstone, William Crane (1963). Burma's foreign policy: a study in neutralism. Harvard University Press.
- U )
- Prager-Nyein, Susanne; Nyein, Tun Kyaw (2016). "Setting the Stage for the Final Struggle. The Naythurain Conference". In Chandler, David P.; Cribb, Robert; Narangoa, Li (eds.). End of Empire. 100 Days in 1945 that Changed Asia and the World. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
- Seekins, Donald M. (2006). Historical Dictionary of Burma (Myanmar). Scarecrow Press.
- Thomson, John Seabury (1960). "Marxism in Burma". In Trager, Frank N (ed.). Marxism in South East Asia. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0592-9.
External links
- Woodman, Dorothy (28 February 1948). "Burma - free and socialist". New Statesman Archived 6 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- "The House on Stilts". Time magazine cover story, 30 August 1954
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